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Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue in the Sunny South, a novel by Laura Lee Hope |
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Chapter 25. Mr. Bunn |
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_ CHAPTER XXV. MR. BUNN Sue Brown thought a great deal of her brother Bunny, and she knew he was brave and good to her. But whether he could save her from the alligators she was not quite so certain. "Oh, Bunny, Bunny! where you going?" cried Sue, as she felt her brother pull away from her. "I'm going down there to drive those alligators away with my sharp stick!" he answered. "Oh, Bunny, don't!" begged Sue. "There's such a lot of 'em!" Bunny began to think this himself. As he and his sister watched, they saw more alligators crawling up out of the water to the warm sunny bank of the little island. "There's hundreds of 'em!" cried Sue. More and more alligators kept coming out of the water. Some were large--fully fifteen feet long perhaps, with big, sharp claws, a long, rough tail, and such big mouths! Others of the alligators were small, but there were no babies among them. The sun shone warm on the mud and sand shores of the little island and that is why the alligators climbed out there. Alligators spend about half their time under water, getting things to eat, but when the sun shines hot they like to bask in it. That is what the scaly creatures were now doing. "Let's don't hurt alligators," begged Sue of her brother. "Let's go back to our own island." Bunny looked at the big, glistening, black creatures, as they crawled over one another, sometimes giving flips with their tails and opening their mouths. And though Bunny was a brave little chap he knew it would never do for him to go anywhere near the alligators. As it was, he and his sister were some distance back from the shore, up near the center of the little island. The alligators did not seem to have noticed them. "All right," Bunny answered. "I won't hurt any of the alligators. We'll go home and I'll tell daddy and Mr. Halliday and they can come and hunt them." "That'll be better," Sue said, with a sigh of relief. For a little while longer the two children remained looking at the great water lizards. Then they started for the place where they had waded from one island to the other. But when they reached this place, Sue keeping hold of her brother's hand all the way, they saw a new trouble. "Oh, look!" cried Sue, pointing. "We can't get away, Bunny! The wading place is full of alligators!" And so it was! While the children had been at the center of the little island, the alligators had crawled up out of the river, and many were now sunning themselves on the sand near the ford. One or two were even on the end of the larger island. And as Bunny and Sue watched, they saw some swimming around in the shallow water through which the children had waded a little while before. "We--we can't get back across!" Sue cried. "No," agreed Bunny. "I don't b'lieve we can. Not in our bare feet." Clearly it would have been dangerous to go in among those alligators. Even Bunny, brave as he was, would not dare to do this. "Oh, how are we going to get home?" wailed Sue. Bunny did not know what to answer. "I want mother!" sobbed Sue. This time she was really crying. Bunny felt he must do something. He dropped the pointed stick he had intended to use on the alligators and, putting his arm around Sue, said: "Don't cry! I'll holler for help and somebody will hear us and come and get us." "Will they?" asked Sue. "Sure!" Bunny answered. "Come on, we'll both call!" The children united their voices in loud calls of: "Help! Help! Help!" For a moment there was no answer. Some of the alligators seemed alarmed by the noise and scrambled back into the river. But others of the big, scaly creatures seemed to be crawling up toward Bunny Brown and his sister Sue. "Oh, help! Help!" screamed the little girl, and Bunny joined his voice with hers. Then, to their delight, they heard a call in answer. "What's the matter? Who are you? Where are you?" asked a man, who, as yet, neither Bunny nor Sue could see. "We're on the island! The alligators are after us!" Bunny answered. "Don't be afraid! I'll be with you in a minute. They're my alligators and they got out of the pens," the man went on. This time Bunny and Sue knew where his voice came from. They looked down the stream and saw an elderly man, with white hair and a pleasant face, rowing toward them in a boat. "Oh, take us away! Take us away!" begged Sue. "I will," the man said. "How in the world did you children ever get here, anyhow? But don't be afraid. The 'gators won't hurt you. They'll all jump into the river!" And, surely enough, no sooner had the man pulled his boat close to the island, so that the keel grated on the sand, than, with great splashes, the alligators all plunged into the river. "What made 'em go away?" asked Sue, as she and Bunny went down to the shore. "Oh, alligators are timid," said the man, with a laugh. "Did they scare you? Well, if you had only run at them or thrown something at them, they would all have crawled into the water. But who are you, anyhow?" "I'm Bunny Brown and this is my sister, Sue," said the little fellow. "Well, I'm Mr. Bunn," was the man's reply, and he smiled at the children. "I raise alligators a few miles down the river. Some of 'em got away last night, and I've rowed up here to see if I could find 'em. I did." "But they all got away!" exclaimed Bunny, for now not one of the scaly creatures was in sight. "Oh, I'll get 'em again," said Mr. Bunn. "They won't go very much farther up Squaw River. It's too shallow. They'll soon turn and swim down, and they can't get past my place for I have a net stretched across the river to hold 'em back. Well, I'm glad I have found my 'gators. I was afraid some one had taken them. Now shall I put you children in my boat and row you home? Where do you live?" "We're staying at Mr. Halliday's," Bunny answered. "Oh, at Orange Beach. Yes, I know him and I know his place. You're quite a way from there. How'd you get here?" "On a raft," Bunny replied. "It's over on that other island," and he pointed to the larger one. "Our shoes and stockings are away back near the orange trees," said Sue. "Oh," laughed Mr. Bunn. "Well, I'll let you come in my boat without any shoes or stockings on. Get aboard!" A little later he was rowing the children up the river. Sue was no longer afraid, even though she could see some alligators swimming around in the water. She felt safe in the big boat, and so did Bunny. "What do you keep 'gators for?" asked Bunny, when the boat was near the place where he and Sue had started out in the raft, some hours before. "For their hides," answered Mr. Bunn. "I sell the hides, and pocketbooks and valises are made from them. But I guess there are your folks looking for you," and he nodded toward shore. And there, on the bank stood Daddy and Mother Brown and Mr. Halliday, looking anxiously up and down the stream. Daddy Brown had the children's shoes and stockings in his hand. "Oh, Bunny! where have you been?" cried his mother. "We went down on a raft, and we landed on a pirate island, and then we got on an alligator island," Bunny explained. "Alligators!" cried Daddy Brown. "Some of mine got away," explained Mr. Bunn. And then he told how he had found Bunny and Sue. "Well, you had quite an adventure!" exclaimed the orange grower. "I knew Mr. Bunn had 'gators on his place, but I never thought any of 'em would get away and come up here." "Well, I'm glad we saw some," said Bunny. Mr. Brown thanked Mr. Bunn for having saved Bunny and Sue, and as it was near meal time the alligator farmer was invited to stay to supper. Washed and combed, with clean clothes on, Bunny and Sue sat at the table and related their adventures, while Mr. Bunn told about raising alligators. "Do you make much money?" asked Mr. Brown. "Well, yes, some years I do," was the answer. "But I'd like to make an extra lot this year. I've had some bad luck." "Do you mean your alligators getting away?" asked Mr. Brown. "No, though that's bad enough," Mr. Bunn replied. "But I was up North a few weeks ago on business, and I lost a valuable paper belonging to my nephew. It was for some stock in an oil well, and was made out to 'bearer.' If it had had his name on it I might have got it back. But as it is, I guess it's gone forever. He gave me the stock certificate to keep for him, but I guess I'm not very good at keeping things. I haven't told my nephew about it yet, but when he finds out I have lost his oil stock temporary certificate he'll be angry with me, I'm afraid." Bunny Brown and his sister Sue looked at one another curiously. Daddy Brown went over to a desk where he and Mr. Halliday had been looking at some papers before they missed the children. "Did you lose that certificate in a parlor car up near Bellemere, Mr. Bunn?" asked the children's father, as he took a green and gold piece of paper from an envelope. "Well, I remember going through a place called Bellemere," was the answer. "But where I lost the paper I don't know. I may have dropped it from my pocket in the parlor car, or somewhere else. Anyhow, I lost it, and I don't suppose I'll ever see my nephew's certificate again. He'll be angry with me." "Oh, no, I guess he won't," said Mr. Brown with a smile. "What company was that stock in?" "The Great Bonanza," was Mr. Bunn's answer. "Then here it is back again," said Mr. Brown, and he gave to the alligator farmer the paper Bunny had picked out of the snow some weeks before. Then the whole story was told, and you can imagine how glad and surprised Mr. Bunn was. He had never expected to see his nephew's property again, and he had not told about the loss nor notified the oil company, for fear his nephew would hear of it and be angry. "I was just going to let it go and say nothing," said Mr. Bunn. "I thought I could make enough extra on my alligators to pay my nephew back for the loss. But now I don't have to! I'm so glad I met you children!" he added. "But for that I would never have this back," and he put into his pocket the green and gold certificate. He wanted to give Mr. Brown a reward for the children, but their mother said rescuing them from the alligators was reward enough. "But they were my own 'gators, and, really, Bunny and Sue were in no great danger," said Mr. Bunn. "They could have scared the 'gators away." But Mr. Brown would accept no reward, though later Mr. Bunn did send Bunny and Sue a tiny live alligator for a pet, and they kept it for some time, for it grew quite tame and would eat bits of meat from their fingers--at least from Bunny's, for Sue never learned to like their scaly pet. Meanwhile Mr. Bunn had gone back down the river to his alligator farm. He said he would get his men together and capture the big lizards that had got away. Bunny and Sue had many more days of fun in the sunny South, and they ate all the oranges they wanted. But what Bunny talked about most when he and Sue reached their Northern home was the adventure with the alligators on the little island. Before they went home, however, Bunny and Sue went to Mr. Bunn's queer "farm," and saw hundreds of alligators where they were kept in pens. Most of those that broke away had been captured again. Mr. Bunn's nephew came down to help his uncle, and was given his oil stock certificate, never knowing how nearly it had been lost. "Well, we must soon think of going back North again," said Mr. Brown one day, as he saw Bunny and Sue playing out under the orange trees. "Oh, not just yet!" begged the children. "We want to have a little more fun!" And so, while Bunny Brown and his sister Sue are having fun, we will take leave of them. [THE END] _ |
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